1969 Albums

On May12th, 1969, Fairport Convention was involved in a motorway accident that claimed the lives of drummer Martin Lamble and clothing designer Jeannie Franklyn (then-girlfriend of Richard Thompson, to whom Jack Bruce would dedicate his debut solo album). Sandy Denny wasn’t travelling with the band, choosing instead to ride with her boyfriend Trevor Lucas and his band, Eclection. After recruiting traditional fiddler Dave Swarbrick and drummer Dave Mattacks, and recuperating at Farley Chamberlayne, the band responded with their strongest album yet, Liege & Lief.

One look at the backgrounds of the members of Can (jazz pedigrees, students of Karlheinz Stockhausen, WDR Studio etc.) and the last thing you'd think is that they were a rock band. Similarly, listening to their music, you'd also probably have to stretch the concept of rock ‘n' roll to fit them in. Krautrock was Germany's answer to the psychedelic and progressive music of the late 1960s, and certainly a unique idiom in and of itself. But Can's post-psychedelic groove had much more to do with the avant-garde, even by krautrock's standards.